Stuck in Hyperspace
by mercury19
Summary: In a moment of rashness, Darth Vader makes a decision that will change the fate of the galaxy. Follow along as Anakin, Obi-Wan, and some poor bystanders are swept up in a wild ride to who knows where!
1. Chapter 1

_Whoosh!_ Obi-Wan ducked just in time to avoid being decapitated. His own lightsaber snapped up just in time to block a second blow from his adversary. Obi-Wan pushed back and went on the offensive, trying to both fight and avoid looking at his opponent. He tried to get lost in the _humm-CRASH!_ Of the battle tried to focus on surviving, but everytime he looked up his focus wavered as he saw Anakin, his friend, his brother, on the other side. He didn't know how long he could hold out.

It seemed like it had been hours. Obi-Wan's muscles ached, but he couldn't stop. He had to survive, he had to beat his opponent. A small part of his mind still believed that Anakin could be saved, or that he should run, escape, fight another day. But he didn't. Each of those thoughts was met with a flashback of the holovid yoda had shown him, the horror that had been his former apprentice destroying the Jedi Order. He couldn't stop. Obi-Wan would not let Anakin's crimes go unpunished.

They were near a cliff. At least, Obi-Wan thought so. He didn't dare take his focus off of the fight for a moment. He couldn't afford to. He had to keep fighting, he had to win. Swing. Parry. Parry. Thrust. He was relying on the force to guide his motions; his vision was full of sweat. Or was it tears? He couldn't tell.

Suddenly, at the edge of his mind he felt a slight tug. An opening! Knowing that this was his only chance, Obi-Wan swung with all his might. He heard a scream of anguish, but he paid it no heed. His hand came up, and with all his might he pushed outward with the force. His vision cleared for a moment, and he saw an image that would haunt him forever. Anakin, his apprentice, his comrade in arms, his friend, his brother, flying backwards off of a cliff, his right arm a stump just past the elbow. The only sound was Anakin's scream of rage and pain, following him all the way down. Obi-Wan didn't watch him fall. He collapsed there, on the edge of a cliff above the volcanic rivers of Mustafar.

Obi-Wan's eyes snapped open and he sat up, breathing hard and covered in sweat. It had been almost two and a half years, and barely a night went by when his sleep wasn't plagued by nightmares.

He looked up and finally registered the light of Tatooine's twin suns streaming through his window. With groan he heaved himself out of bed and began readying himself for the day. Today was market day in Mos Espa, and he needed to get supplies. He let his thoughts wander as he went about his routine, slipping on his coarse farmer's tunic and poncho, carefully concealing his lightsaber beneath the bulky garment.

Already market days had become almost automatic for the former Jedi master. He drifted from stall to stall, purchasing his wares without comment, barely seeing the people around him. The only people he truly saw were the Lars family and their young child. No one would've suspected who they really were, who the child really was. But of course that was the idea; if it were ever to get out that Owen and Beru had adopted a Skywalker, the son of the betrayer of the Republic, who knows what would happen. Nothing good, that was certain.

The twin suns were past their zenith when it happened. On the edge of Obi-Wan's consciousness he felt a tug, a twinge, a sting. For the first time in months Obi-Wan felt the touch of the Force. At first he flinched, wanting to shy away from this reminder of the past. But he knew there must be a reason for this feeling, so he took a deep breath and relaxed.

He almost regretted the decision. The touch felt dirty, as if it had been bathed in oil or dragged through the mud. The Dark Side. Moments later he heard the whine of engines, and saw a flight of ships approaching from above. Imperial Shuttles. As they approached the touch of the Dark Side grew stronger.

Obi-Wan had heard rumors of the Emperor's servant, his sith apprentice. He had hoped they weren't true, that they were just rumors. But this confirmed otherwise, for it was well known that the Emperor himself never left Coruscant. Someone was coming down, someone well versed in the Dark Side of the Force. He knew what he needed to do. He needed to get the Lars family out of there, and himself as well.

But he couldn't. Feelings welled up inside him and he felt the need to go watch, to see the Emperor's pet. He began moving towards the hangar, breathing deeply and masking his presence in the Force as he did so. It would do him no good to be discovered.

Unsurprisingly a crowd had gathered outside the town. The Empire's hold on Tatooine was not strong, and the people did not yet fear them. They wanted to know what was happening. What did the Empire want? Five shuttles, they murmured. Only a hundred troops? It wasn't a full scale invasion. Obi-Wan pushed his way to the front as the first shuttle's door opened.

Ten Imperial Stormtroopers filed down the ramp, creating a tunnel of sorts for whoever was to come. At the top of the ramp a dark figure appeared. Their presence was palpable even to the least Force sensitive in the crowd, an aura of cold and fear. Their dark cloak billowed as they reached bottom. The crowd was silent. Behind them an imperial officer scurried down the ramp. He moved past the dark figure to the front of the crowd, and pulled a data pad from beneath his jacket.

"Ahem!" the officer cleared his throat and adjusted his uniform, "It has come to the attention of the His Eminence, the Emperor that the people of Tatooine are harboring a traitor! Multiple sources have corroborated the evidence that a former _Jedi_ is being hidden on this planet. By the order of the Emperor, the entire planet shall be subject to search, beginning here, led by the Lord Darth Vader!"

Obi-Wan started. Vader! But that could only mean… He looked up at the cloaked figure. The only other time he'd heard the name Vader was when Palpatine had accepted… the traitor as his apprentice. This was a disaster. He had to find the Lars's and get out of here, get both Luke and himself far away from this monster. He began scanning the crowd, and blanched when his eyes fell on the family in the very front.

He was about to start moving towards them when a sudden movement caught his eye. No! The dark figure, Vader, was dashing forward, straight towards the Lars family! Obi-Wan began running but the crowd was moving, closing him in! He heard screams, and above everything he saw Luke, being held aloft… What was going on? Then the boy, and the arms holding him, disappeared. A shock wave burst through the crowd, a Force blast, and everyone was knocked off of their feet. Obi-Wan's reflexes kicked in and he was up and running towards Vader, who was now running towards the shuttle. Questions flooded the back of his mind but he pushed them down, his only concern to rescue Luke.

Vader dashed up the ramp, pushing Stormtroopers out of the way. Obi-Wan followed, and heard the sound of the engines start up just as he reached the ramp. The ship began to lift almost immediately, and he had to leap to grab the bottom of the ramp. He started to heave himself up when he felt a sudden drag on his foot.

He looked down and saw the Imperial officer hanging off of his leg, clearly absolutely terrified. No time for questions, Obi-Wan began pulling himself up onto the ramp. With a heave, he lifted himself over the edge, using the force to drag both himself and the officer all the way inside. Just as the officer's foot cleared the edge the door closed completely, sealing with a _hssss._


	2. Chapter 2

_Hssss._ As the loading ramp closed, Anakin Skywalker took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing thoughts. Had he really just done that? What had he just done? It had all been so confusing.

Vader had been sent to Tatooine following rumors of a Jedi refugee. His master had commanded it, and so he had gone. It hadn't occurred to him what might happen upon returning to his home; all that mattered was obeying his master. That had changed quickly though.

Seeing all the sand, that coarse, rough, irritating sand, brought a wave of memories. Memories of being a child, of tinkering with junk in Watto's shop, of his dear mother, of being a slave. Memories of being Anakin. His eyes lost focus, and he barely heard the accompanying officer's speech.

Then he'd felt a twinge in the Force, a bit of a tug. He'd looked up, and the pull became stronger. He followed it to its source, and found himself staring at a child. A young boy, with a head of blonde hair, and blue eyes. Memories surfaced of looking at himself in a mirror and seeing those very same eyes. The pull in the Force became stronger. Suddenly he wasn't on Tatooine anymore.

He saw Padme. Padme! She was laying on a bed, breathing hard, surrounded by medical personel of some alien species… Then there was a cry, and Anakin looked over to see one of the aliens holding a child, a child with startlingly blue eyes…

Anakin was wrenched back to the present. A Force vision! It had to be, it had felt so real. And it could only mean one thing… That was his son! All rational thought stopped, and he lunged forward. Within milliseconds he was in front of the couple with the child, taking him form their arms, raising him above his head…

"NO!" he heard himself shouting, "You can't have him! He's mine!" People were screaming, shouting but Anakin didn't hear them. He looked around, panicking, and saw the shuttle. He had to get away! He brought the baby in close to his chest with one hand, and with the other sent out a shockwave of the Force with the other. He charged through the path he'd cleared, up the ramp, and into the cockpit. He'd tossed the pilot aside, taken off, and now here he was.

"My Lord Vader!" Anakin looked to the side to see the pilot standing with her helmet removed. "Is something wrong? What happened, sir?"

Anakin was about to respond when suddenly a newcomer burst into the cockpit. "Vader!" they shouted, "Give me the boy!" The voice sounded familiar… and that hair… the beard was a bit long, but…

It was Obi-Wan! The stress was too much. Anakin panicked again, the memory of his last meeting with the Jedi overwhelmed by memories of stern lectures. The boy in Anakin took control, desperate to escape this very unpleasant situation. Without a second thought his hands grasped the controls. He blasted them out of the atmosphere and punched in hyperspace coordinates to somewhere, anywhere but here, and the ship bucked and jerked as it tried to keep up with it's irrational pilot.

Satisfied that he'd escaped, Anakin looked back to see how far behind Obi-Wan was. His spirits fell as he say Obi-Wan propped up against the back corner of the cockpit, groaning.

Anakin almost panicked again, but he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the view screen. Darth Vader stood, cradling a still shocked child in one arm, and spoke.

"What are you doing here?" the Sith reached for his lightsaber… He reached for his lightsaber… Where was his lightsaber? Across from him Kenobi stood, and reached for his own belt, not realizing that it was also empty. For a moment they stood their like fools, patting all around their waists for their lightsabers.

The two men both considered using the Force for a moment, until Luke finally made himself heard. The shock and excitement had worn off and he had finally realized that he was not in a familiar place, and was surrounded by very angry, very frightening strangers. He opened his mouth and began bawling. Obi-Wan and Anakin froze, and their eyes locked on Luke. The pilot, who had also been knocked unconscious, groaned.

It was at that moment that the officer opened the door, blaster at the ready. He quickly analyzed the situation, and realized that the small child was the reason for Vader's erratic behavior. Thinking only of his duty to the Empire and bringing Vader back under control, he fired two quick shots at the child.

Or he tried to, at least. As his finger touched the trigger, Obi-Wan and Anakin simultaneously turned to him and hurled him into the controls using the Force. Sparks flew as his finder slammed the trigger, blowing a hole in the most of the controls.

Luke screamed louder as Obi-Wan and Anakin looked at the now horribly smashed controls, realizing that they, and everyone else on the ship, were now stuck in hyperspace.


	3. Chapter 3

For a few moments the only sounds were the sparking of the destroyed controls and Luke's terrified crying. No one moved. Then the officer groaned, and started to lift himself up. Suddenly he was floating upwards, as though being lifted by his throat. He began clawing at an invisible hand as Darth Vader stepped forward.

The officer's face began turning red, his eyes bulging as he gasped for breath that wouldn't come. Obi-Wan, who hadn't recovered from shock as quickly as Vader, looked around. His eyes fell on Luke. The child was staring at the dying officer, eyes wide with terror as tears streamed down his red face.

"Vader!" Obi-Wan shouted, "Stop! Release him!" The Sith Lord ignored him. Without thinking Obi-Wan continued shouting. "The boy! Not in front of the boy!" At that Vader's focus broke, and he glanced down at the child in his arms. The imperial officer slumped to the ground, hyperventilating. Vader slumped back into the pilots chair, staring at the small, crying boy in his arms.

"Ok!" Obi-Wan, Anakin, and the officer looked up startled. The shuttle pilot, forgotten since Anakin had thrown her from her chair, stood up. "Now that we're no longer quite literally at each other's throats, can someone tell me what's going here?"

The officer cleared his throat, "That _child-_ " he said, putting an unhealthy amount of venom into the word, "-has driven Lord Vader insane!" He shrunk back as Vader started to rise, before the pilot interjected.

"AH! Nope! Stop right there. Let's try something different. You, lieutenant, get out of the cockpit." For a moment he looked as though he might argue, but he looked at the three glaring faces around him and decided it wasn't worth his life. He quietly slunk back into the main cabin. "Now," the pilot continued, "While it is obvious you care for him, My Lord, I don't think your armor is the most comforting sight for the child, so if you'd give me your cloak we can set up a place for him to rest in the co-pilot's chair." Vader handed her Luke, then removed his cloak and placed it on the chair. The pilot placed the boy down and swaddled him in the large black garment. By now he had gone from bawling to sniffling, and the softness of the cloak seemed to bring out the exhaustion of the last few minutes. Luke's eyelids drooped and he began to doze.

The pilot turned back to the two Force users. "If we've all calmed down now, I'd like some answers. Lord Vader, who are the boy and this man, and where did you send us to?"

Anakin was silent a moment, trying to process exactly what had just happened. "I… have reason to believe the boy is my son." He looked up at Obi-Wan. "And this is a former Jedi Knight who has kept him hidden from me."

"Your son?" Obi-Wan scoffed, "This isn't your son. This is an innocent child that you just kidnapped."

"Don't lie to me!" Anakin snapped. "I know he's my son. I saw it. The Force gave me a vision. Padmé..." His voice broke as his wife's face appeared in his mind. He looked up, half expecting Obi-Wan to try and contradict him again. Instead he saw a look of resignation on the older man's face.

"I suppose it was going to happen eventually," the former Jedi said, "I was just hoping to have more time." There was another moment of silence.

"Well," said the pilot, "Now that we've established that this is far more personal for my comfort, can you tell me where you blasted us off to, Lord Vader?"

The Dark Lord of the Sith looked up. "I..." he paused. "I don't know." He turned tot he computer, trying to see the course he'd set, only to find that it had been fried. The pilot sighed.

"Well then," she said, attempting to restrain her frustration, "I suppose we should get to fixing the computer first so that we know where we're going to end up." She moved over to the rear of the cockpit, removed a panel, and pulled a maintenance kit out of an alcove. She returned to the console, opened the box, and began examining the damage. She looked up momentarily and saw the two men eyeing the boy, who was now sleeping soundly. "Don't even think about it," she said. "In fact, why don't both of you leave? I'd rather not have another accident that makes everything more difficult." She glared at them. Slowly, keeping their eye's on each other, the two men left the cabin. Satisfied that she would not be interrupted, the pilot turned back to the ruined console, hoping it wasn't too badly damaged.


	4. Chapter 4

Lieutenant Marus Tarkin jumped as he heard the cockpit door open. He saw Darth Vader storm out, followed by the strange bearded man. The Dark Lord flung open the hatch to the lower level and descended to the area that had been converted to his personal chambers for the original mission. Tarkin sighed, grateful that the Sith seemed to have forgotten his transgression in the cockpit for the time being.

The danger from his superior passed, Marus took a moment to study the other resident of the cabin. The man moved with a certain strength and confidence, despite his unkempt appearance, making Marus think he was perhaps in his mid to early thirties. A closer look, however revealed that his red hair and beard were already shot through with gray, and even from across the cabin wrinkles and stress lines were visible on his face. He was certainly at least in his late thirties, more than likely older than forty. Marus watched intently as the older man slumped in one of the chairs lining the walls and buried his face in his hands. Perhaps, he thought, reaching for his blaster, now was an opportune moment…

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the man said without looking up. His voice sounded tired, almost hollow. "It won't work. Besides, as I'm sure you've realized, your blaster is still in the cockpit." Marus had indeed realized this and was standing, mouth slightly agape, staring at the man. How had the stranger known what he was thinking?

"Don't be so surprised," the man continued, raising his head and looking at him with mild annoyance. "I could've felt your intent even without the aid of the Force. Hiding your intentions doesn't seem to be your strong suit." Marus' face turned red and he coughed. The strange man looked at him for a moment. It was clear he was thinking, but about what? "Well," he said suddenly, "We're going to be stuck here for a while. May as well get to know each other. Space travel is always worse with no one to talk to." He gestured to the row of seats next to him, Inviting Marus to sit down. The younger man hesitated. "Don't worry, I won't bite," the stranger said wryly. "My name… Well, you can call me Ben. What's your name?"

Cautiously, Marus Tarkin moved towards Ben. "I am Lieutenant Marus Tarkin," he said, taking a seat a few chairs down from Ben, not taking his eyes off of him. Marus did not intend to trust this man; It was obvious he was an enemy of Lord Vader, and therefore of the Empire. But perhaps he could learn about this enemy; perhaps even a way to extricate himself from this mynock's nest of a situation.

Before Marus could think of something to ask though, Ben spoke up. "You said your name was Tarkin? Any relation to Wilhuff Tarkin?"

"He's my uncle," replied Marus cautiously. What connection did this hermit have to Moff Tarkin?

"How is he doing?" Ben said "Last I heard he was an Admiral in the Republic's Navy, although I suppose that no longer exists."

"He's a sector governor now, doing important work for the Emperor in the Western Reaches," Marus said.

"Well if Tarkin's in charge of it, it can't be anything pleasant," Ben replied, his brow furrowing. "Tell me, Marus," the hermit continued, "what's the Galaxy like these days? How does your Dark Emperor treat his citizens?"

the younger man replied instantly, swelling with pride at the chance to describe his glorious Emperor. "Emperor Palpatine is a strong ruler. He took the remains of the corrupt, chaotic 'Republic' and turned it into a well oiled machine. He's made the galaxy great again!"

Ben scoffed. "I suspect that's a matter of opinion," the old man said, his voice heavy with scorn. "Even Tatooine felt the effects of your dictators laws, and that ball of dust hasn't felt anything in millennia."

"The Empire has spread peace and order to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, farther even then the Republic at its height!" Marus responded vehemently.

"Peace? Perhaps by some twisted definition I suppose. But I would call it fear." Ben's eyes grew distant as he continued. "Peace is not Ithorians and Rodians cowering before Imperial Batons. Peace is not Devaronians and Zabraks begging on the streets because their stalls and wares were seized. Peace is not parents hiding their children's eyes as this is happening, and keeping their doors and windows locked at all hours." Suddenly his focus returned. "But I don't suppose you would understand that, would you? You grew up in the Tarkin household; the outside has never been your concern."

Marus faltered. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't been out in public much; had he even seen an Ithorian that wasn't a projection? Maybe… No. The old man was lying. The Imperial government reported peace, and so there was peace. "I know what you're trying to do," the young man said, standing abruptly. "You're trying to use the Force, one of those 'Jedi mind tricks'. Well it won't work on me. I'll not listen to anymore of your insidious lies." He saw one of Ben's eyebrows shoot up, almost as if he was amused, but Marus turned away, not wanting to acknowledge it. He moved to the other side of the cabin and sat, not facing his unwanted companion.

He heard Ben heave a sigh, and after a few minutes he turned around. The hermit was dozing off, his body uncomfortably slumped in the chair. Marus sneered. Old fool, he'll get what's coming to him. Turning back around, the Imperial Officer began thinking of ways to get out of this mess.


	5. Chapter 5

Darth Vader's mind whirled as he moved into the lower level of the shuttle. Thoughts and feelings flew back and forth, refusing to settle. Anger flared before being consumed by grief, which gave way to the odd flash of joy. He looked around the space set aside for his personal use, desperately searching for a way to escape his pain. As his thoughts swelled, he tore off his helmet and tossed it to the ground, before dropping to his knees, his hands clutching his head.

As he did so, something caught his eye. He picked up his helmet and looked in the reflective surface, and saw his face. Not the face of Darth Vader, the Emperor's right hand man, but of Anakin Skywalker. He almost hadn't recognized it; his skin was pale, his cheeks had become gaunt, and there were bags under his eyes. Absently, he wondered when the last time he'd been outside without his helmet was. He couldn't remember.

He stared down at his reflection, into his own cold, yellowed eyes. His mind spun, trying to comprehend what he saw. In his mind, he'd looked as he always had. His skin tanned from missions outdoors, his hair an unruly mess framing blue eyes. That face, he realized, was lost now. Lost, like everything else. An image of Padmé, her face lit up with a smile, flashed across his mind. He let out a sob, and as the helmet slipped from his fingers he saw his face twist into a mask of pain and sadness. Tears rolled down his cheeks and his shoulders heaved as he cried silently.

Through his sadness, he felt the force, his strong emotions opening the path for the dark side to wash over him, it's malevolence a familiar presence now, after years spent learning from the Emperor. After a moment though, something felt different. At the edge of the darkness, there was a slight nudge. It was warm and soft and bright, a place of comfort amid the roiling storm of darkness. Taken by surprise, Anakin reached towards it without thinking. It was strange, almost familiar; suddenly, Anakin realized it was the boy in the cockpit. The boy…

His son? It seemed a strange thought, but it felt right, deep in his soul, yet it couldn't be true, could it? The Emperor had told him so, that Padmé had died on Mustafar, that Anakin had done it himself. He remembered- he remembered Padmé, gasping for breath and clawing at the invisible grasp around her throat, he remembered seeing his outstretched hand, closing his fingers, watching as she slumped to the ground…

Anakin felt his thoughts spiral downwards, felt the dark side move in, and in an act of desperation, reached towards the light. The thoughts receded slightly, just enough for him to remember the vision he'd had. Padmé, surrounded by aliens, clearly giving birth. As he thought, details became clearer; the aliens had been Polis Massans. Polis Massa wasn't far from Mustafar, only a short jump rimward. When had Padmé gone there? Had she gone before confronting him on Mustafar? Or after? He tried to remember what she'd looked like as she'd faced him, whether her stomach had still been swollen, but the memories of that fateful encounter were clouded by rage.

Then another memory surfaced, of another force vision, from what seemed ages ago. The reason he'd first sought out Palpatine's knowledge of the dark side. The force had shown him Padmé dying in child birth. How did it all add up? If this new vision was true, and the boy was his son, than shouldn't the former vision be true also? Then she must've given birth after Mustafar, but how? How had she survived when his master said he'd killed her? His eyes narrowed. Either the force had lied to him, or his master had.

He clenched his fists as rage began smoldering in his gut. He'd trusted the Emperor, and been let down. Just as he'd trusted the Jedi Order. In that moment, he realized that nothing good had come of trust. Whenever he chose to trust in someone or something, he or people he cared about got hurt. An image of his reflection, as he'd seen it in his helmet, loomed in his mind. Why had this happened? What had he ever done to deserve this? His mother dead, his wife dead, his son taken. Kept as a slave, betrayed by the Jedi, perhaps by Palpatine too, what next? What horrible plans did the galaxy have for him next, he wondered? Maybe-

His thoughts were cut short by a fluctuation in the force; the boy's presence had changed, and moments later Anakin heard the sound of footsteps moving towards the cockpit, followed by the distinct hiss of the door sliding open. He felt the urge to stay, to bathe in his dark contemplation, but fought it down. He wouldn't let Obi-Wan get his hands on the boy, not again. Anakin strode towards the passage to the upper level, his cape billowing behind him.


	6. Chapter 6

Cassandra sighed heavily as she looked at the smashed console. What was she supposed to do with this? The combination of blaster fire and a grown human had left the controls a sparking mess. At the very least, she decided, she needed to know where in the galaxy they were going. She rubbed her temples, then pulled her hair out of the Imperial Uniform Regulation bun she'd kept it in.

With the release of tension, her thoughts flowed a little more freely. "Whelp," she said softly, "I suppose first I should figure out where in the galaxy we're going." Fortunately, the navicomputer had been on the edge of the damaged area. It wouldn't take a huge amount of effort to rewire it to a datapad and get the information. She pulled out her personal pad and got to work.

As she worked, her thoughts wandered. She wondered what had happened. This mission was supposed to be simple. Just routine transport for Lord Vader; matter of fact those are considered the safest jobs in the Imperial Navy; no one in their right mind attacked the Emperor's servant, and any who did were dispatched quickly. She wasn't usually a fan of such safe missions, they were too boring. But her dad's had insisted since most starfighter assignments were incredibly dangerous, so she'd agreed to take a break from those for a little while at least.

Now, of course, she was hurtling through hyperspace to an unknown destination on a shuttle with the Empire's most feared warrior, a Tarkin, a retired Jedi, and a child, who, somehow, was the cause of this mess. She looked over at the culprit just in time to see him yawn and open his eyes. He looked at her for a moment, then wriggled one of his arms free of the cloak he was wrapped in.

"Hi," he said shyly, waving a small hand.

"Hey there kiddo," Cassandra responded. She extracted herself from the wires and rocked backwards to sit on her heels. "What's your name?" She decided to take a break and stretch her fingers.

"Luke," the boy said, his voice gaining confidence.

"Well it's nice to meet you, Luke, I'm Cassandra."

"Candra?" Luke said.

Cassandra chuckled. "Sure, that'll do. How old are you Luke?"

After a moment of thought, Luke proudly displayed an open hand. "I'm two!" he said.

"Causing trouble so early? Well I suppose they call it the terrible twos for a reason."

"What're you doing?" Luke asked, pointing at the wrecked console.

"Oh that? I'm, uh, I'm trying to clean up a mess." She turned back towards the console just in time to see one of the exposed wires spark.

"Woah!" Said Luke, his eyes going wide. As Cassandra turned back to him, he threw his arms in the air. "Pshh!" he said excitedly, attempting to imitate the spark.

"That's right. I should probably get working now," she said.

Cassandra leaned back into the console. It took another half hour of carefully rooting around in the wires, punctuated by the occasional spark or exclamation from Luke, but eventually Cassandra pulled out a connector and plugged it into her datapad. A sense of dread slowly filled her chest as the data appeared, line by line. "Oh no," she said softly.

"Oh no?" Said Luke quizzically. "Oh no, oh no!" he sang, adding a bizarre irony to the phrase he didn't truly comprehend.

Cassandra turned to him slowly, and he fell silent as he saw the look of despair she couldn't wipe from her face. Just then footsteps echoed through the ship and the door to the cockpit opened to reveal the old man and the Lieutenant. She realized that they must've heard Luke, and waved them in.

A split second later, Darth Vader rose from the depths of the shuttle and moved in to the room. Cassandra's eyes widened as she realized he wasn't wearing his helmet. She stared in shock. No one she knew had ever seen his face, and most people thought he couldn't remove the helmet at all. She realized the other two adults were staring as well the same and blinked to clear her head.

"What happened?" Obi-Wan said turning towards Cassandra.

"The good news is that I managed to get hooked in to the navicomputer." She sighed, glancing at the datapad one more time. "The bad news, is, well, there's a lot of that. The safety measures were fried, the engines are only accessible from the outside, and I won't be able to get any kind of control of the ship in its current state. But the real problem is our destination."

She looked around the room at the others, who were watching her intently. As she continued, her gaze settled on Vader. "We're headed for Kessel. Our route goes through the Maw."


	7. Chapter 7

[AN: A short chapter this time (well, shorter than usual), but I'm gonna try and get some more up later this month. I've got everything planned out, just gotta find time to write it all down~]

Through the Maw. The words hung in the air, suspended by the shock of the people in the room. Obi-Wan rubbed the bridge of his nose as he heaved a sigh. He opened his mouth to speak, but Marus beat him to it, words pouring out of the young man's mouth in a panic.

"So we're going to die? We're just stuck on this blasted ship until some black hole drags us into its hold and crushes us? This wasn't supposed to happen, I'm an officer of the Imperial-"

"Be quiet." Marus's mouth slammed shut as Darth Vader spoke. Obi-Wan took the momentary pause to give voice to his own thoughts.

"How long do we have?"

"A little more than three days," Cassandra replied, turning to the former Jedi.

"Well, that's something at least. Is there anything we can do?"

Cassandra glanced back at the controls. "Not from here. The primary controls are completely smashed; I was only barely able to get the navigation data. I'm not sure what else there is."

"Hmmm. Is there any way to manually access the hyperdrive? Is there an emergency shut down?"

"Not that will help us." Three heads turned towards Vader as he spoke. "This shuttle is an older model. The emergency shut down is routed through the primary controls."

"But I thought we were phasing out these models!" Marus exclaimed. Obi-Wan turned to see an expression of horror on the young man's face. "Why would you still have one, my lord?"

"I ordered my shuttle be the last replaced because I'm more than capable of escaping danger." Vader's voice was cold but the words carried a sentiment of the past, of when Anakin had looked after the clones even before himself. Obi-Wan mentally waved the thought away. Now was not the time for reminiscing, they had to escape this mess.

"We're doomed," Marus moaned, his head falling into his hands.

"Lieutenant!" Vader barked.

"Yessir!" the officer's head snapped up out of reflex.

"I did not ask for your opinion. You would do well to keep it to yourself." Marus paled at the veiled threat. "You used to work in communications. I see that the communication terminal in here is mostly undamaged. Use it to send a distress call over Imperial emergency signals."

"As you command, my lord."

"I suggest we give the lieutenant some space," Obi-Wan said. "There isn't a lot of room in the cockpit for all of use."

"I will take the boy to my chambers. You and the pilot will stay above." Tension shot through the air as Vader rose.

"I think not," Obi-Wan replied calmly, meeting Vader's icy glare without fear.

"I'll keep looking after the kid," the pilot said. The two men looked at her, and she continued. "Neither of you will be happy if he's with the other, and we can't afford to have you going at it right now. We all stay in the main cabin, that way we can all see what's going on and nobody has to worry."

Obi-Wan regarded her for a moment. "We are fortunate to have someone so clear headed with us. I think that will work." He stood up and gestured towards the door. "Shall we?" The pilot gently picked up Luke, still wrapped in one of Vader's cloaks, and made her way into the other room. Obi-Wan heard Vader stand behind him as he followed behind her.


End file.
